...as it happens, he needs a new boat. Oh, sure, you've noticed that he already has a boat and you're right. Working 10 hours a day, he's built a boat transportation service but now he needs a newer, better boat. "In this way, he will be able to transport his customers in a very safe manner and will be able to improve his income and continue fighting to make his greatest dream come true: to be able to provide his children with a profession and for them to be very proud of him."That's according to Kiva.org. The good people at Kiva are going to take our tiny $25 donation, add it to enough other donations to total $575, then turn it over to Caja Rural in Peru -- and Ercilio gets his boat. In time, we'll get our money back -- probably. There's roughly a 99% repayment rate. This is our seventh Kiva loan and, so far, we haven't been stiffed yet. If you're at all interested in doing such a thing, this is a good time to do it. The philanthropic Omidyar Network has offered to donate $100,000 if the Kiva community loans $1.5 million out by June 30th. Weirdly, if you're new to Kiva and this kind of thing, they'll even provide you a free $25 loan to offer someone like Ercilio. We don't know how it works but free + helping others = not a bad thing.

Plus, Ercilio could really used a new boat.* * *So how did our eReaderIQ ad work out? We're not glad you asked. The morning of the ad, we checked the Amazon rating for Aly's Luck: #446,249. We should have checked the number the night before, we'd forgotten to do so -- again, we're lousy at the promotion game -- but it seemed vaguely in the ballpark. An hour later, we checked again: #446,943. Yes, we were actually LOSING sales as the ad continued. (We weren't really; it just felt that way. Other books were selling, our title wasn't, and our rating reflected this.) So we did what every right-thinking person would do. We quit checking the numbers.By the following morning, we were willing to look at the sales ranking again. Our number had improved to #137,954, its highest rating ever but still leaving us with a loss on the cost of the ad. That could change if one of the buyers gives the story a rave, tells his millions of Twitter-ites, and a flood of buyers swarm the Amazon site...but, really, what are the odds?This isn't just a hypothetical question. We wondered: What are the odds that Aly's Luck will become a smash hit? We went to the toy section at the local store, shook up their Magic 8 Ball and asked. The response: Better not tell you now.You know what we wanted it to say?

Come on in! This

is the electronic home of Renée Harrell. Did you bring any wine?

Renée & Harrell

It's about time you got here.

We aren't kidding about the wine.This is where we talk about writing... ...our writing, mostly. We also discuss kiva.org, Hunting Monsters Press, the magic bakery, self-publishing, pseudonyms, life itself -- a bunch of things.